Our daily bread

— Yiddish Proverb (17061) “Or what man is there among you, of whom if his son shall ask bread, will he reach him a stone?” — Luke 11:11 Douay-Rheims Bible

Jesus Christ bettered the instruction of the Jewish proverb. This simply means that we shall answer a bad deed with a good one. Christ has always been teaching us to be patient and forgiving. He knows that these virtues are becoming hard to find through the passing of the days.

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But hope springs eternal. Today, October 16, is “World Pandesal Day” (synched with UN “World Bread Day”). You may dip your pugon-baked pandesal in Batangas kape barako at Kamuning Bakery Café “Pandesal Forum” in three stages:

• At 9:30 in the morning, breakfast with pandesal, Mega sardines, Fly Ace Hobe Noodles, and King Sue ham with Vice President Leni Robredo.

• At 12 noon, lunch with former Senator Bong Bong Marcos with the same menu. (As of this writing, still the separate tables and separate times).

• At 4:00 p.m., merienda with the same menu with Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

POSTSCRIPT: “World Pandesal Day” is an initiative of Wilson Lee Flores, entrepreneur, teacher, and proprietor of Kamuning Backery Café at 43 Judge Jimenez Street/K-1st Street, Barangay Kamuning, to honor our Daily Bread, in thanksgiving for 78 years of patronage by the public (first bakery in Quezon City and and one of oldest still pugon-style), and to remind us of the goal of eradicating poverty, inequalities, and age-old problem of hunger.

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The other good news is that President Rodrigo Duterte may still continue to break with the ambassadors of the European Union, after all.

Twenty-fours earlier, PDu30 exceeded his mercurial temper and threatened to sever relations with the EU, giving them 24 hours to “Layas!”

What precipitated the thunderbolt from Jupiter was the call of the sevenmember delegation of the “International Delegates of the Progressive Alliance” to the Philippines to stop killing suspected drug addicts and silencing of its critics. A separate New York-based Human Rights Watch warned that the Philippines would be at risk of being removed from the UN Human Rights Council because of alleged human rights violation in the country.

It was left to presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella to explain the pratfall, saying that PDu30 only reacted because a group poised itself as a mission from the EU government, “The call of the President for EU ambassadors to leave the country in 24 hours must be taken in this light.”

Abella followed up with two more statements clarifying PDu30’s remarks. He said the EU delegation to the Philippines explained that the remarks of the Progressive Alliance and Party of European Socialists were not EU’s official statements. He also issued a response to a warning that the Philippines could be evicted from the UNHRC, but without linking it to Duterte’s rants.

The EU said that neither the delegation of the European Union in the Philippines nor the European Union institutions in Brussels was part of the planning of the visit. “The statements made by the Progressive Alliance during its visit to the Philippines were made solely on behalf of the Progressive Alliance and do not represent the position of the European Union.”

The EU and the Philippines, the statement continued, both “work constructively and productively together in a close partnership in many contexts and areas, including, of course, in the UN context. The cooperation covers a very wide range of subjects, including trade, where this year the Philippines made extraordinary progress on its exports to the EU.”

Lesson One: Make haste slowly. Someone should advise the President against jumping to conclusion. This could be a job of Malacañang chief of protocol Ambassador Marciano Paynor Jr. (But it takes a special job description and hazard pay for the role.)

The President should remember his GMRC as he appears in protocol with Russian President Valdimir Putin or with Chinese Premier Xi Jinping.

In the event, PDu30 seems to have Teflon quality – three Hail Mary’s and all is forgiven/forgotten. (Or is he the only one who thinks so?)

*** ADVISORY. On October 9, 2017, Taiwan authorities, on receiving the alert concerning Ralph Cabales Trangia, informed the Philippine Bureau of Immigration that the subject was on board flight BR271 which departed from Taipei for Manila. Thanks to this advice, the subject was detained upon his arrival in Manila and will face the judicial process. FEEDBACK: